Love is a Jewel
by Bakery300
Summary: A Valentine Story I've been working on. There will be four chapters in total.
1. Beach Side Soul

**A Beach Side Soul**

A lot has happened recently. White Diamond accepted that I'm not Pink Diamond or Rose Quartz, Lars returned to earth with the off-colors, we healed the corrupted gems, and life's been peaceful on Beach City... for everyone else.

Every night for the past week I've been waking up, tired, and scared. I know that White probably won't come back and make me return to homeworld or anything, but after seeing what her powers can do to gem who she felt were imperfect I've been on edge. Not to mention that I almost died when she removed my gem. Ever since homeworld I haven't been able to sleep more than an hour at a time.

"Steven," came Garnet's voice, "Still can't sleep?" her voice was so soothing and concerned.

"No," I yawned, "I'm just getting some water," I said, sitting in my bed. I didn't even look like I was getting out of bed.

"Maybe you could use a walk," Garnet suggested, sort of with a smile, "It could help clear your mind."

I yawned, "Are you sure, Garnet?"

She only smiled as she walked into her room.

_I guess I'll go take a walk_, I thought as I threw on my shoes and walked outside. The moonlight showed brightly on the ocean, leaving a beautiful luster upon the surface, _What am I gonna do?_ I thought to myself half asleep, _I don't think that Pearl could handle how I feel and Garnet probably already knows, but understands I don't want to ask for her help, and as for Amethyst,_ I yawned loudly and my eyes closed for a second, standing in front of me was some guy. He wore a green jacket and black shirt, had regular blue jeans and some shorter brown hair. Beyond that, the only strange thing was his weird watch thing.

"Um... hello," the guy said, getting down to my eye level, "Could you tell me where I am?"

I rubbed my eyes, "Yeah, you're in Beach City," I pointed to the large sign towards town.

"Oh yeah..." the guy seemed nervous, "Um... this is gonna sound strange, but what planet am I on," I don't know why, but his smile was really goofy.

"Um... Earth?" I said, kind of holding back laughing a little, "Why do you ask?"

The guy sighed, "I've just been traveling, and kind of got lost," he looked up at the sky, "Wow, this sky is beautiful," he seemed lost as he looked off into space, simply enamored by the sky, "It's been a while since things have been peaceful..." he said sitting down on the sand.

I looked at the guy with a smile, but something he'd said stuck for a second, "What do you mean 'it's been a while since things have been peaceful'?"

The guy stopped smiling, "It's nothing, kid," he laid down in the sand rubbed his face, "I've just been through a lot today," he flopped his arms on the sand and stared off at the stars again.

I sat down next to him and looked off at the stars as well, "I know what you mean," I twiddle my fingers, "I know I just met you, but maybe we could help each other?" I didn't know why I felt shy asking him this. I was usually so outgoing, I blame my lack of sleep.

The guy looked at the stars then to me and smiled a faint smile, "Sure, but let's hear about yours," he ruffled my hair, "Whatever happened made you tired."

I giggled a bit, "I mean, if you want me too," I laid down in the sand, "Well it all started when I found out my mother was an intergalactic war criminal... kinda..." I looked over to his face, it was surprised and a bit unsure, "My mom was a Diamond, a race of alien gem people, who invaded earth years ago wanting to be like her siblings, but then saw it's beauty and worth. Then she disguised herself as a soldier to fight against herself in a war, and even faked her own shattering."

"Shattering?" the guy asked.

"It's basically death for gems..." I said, closing my eyes just a for a second, "After that she lived in hiding as that soldier named Rose, with her friends she'd made in the war. All that's left of her exists in me, and it's really upsetting."

"So what happened, your mom died?" the guy asked, now really intrigued.

"Well no..." I lifted my shirt to show my gem, "She gave up her physical form in order for me to live in this world," put my shirt down, "So I'm half gem and half human."

"Well that's a lot to take in," the guy scooted a bit closer and rolled to his side so he could chat with me easier, "So did you just find that out today?"

"No, I've known a lot of that for nearly a year now," I said rolling over to face him, "I've been struggling to sleep after being having seen my... relative, White Diamond, mind control my friends, The Crystal Gems, and then my own... sisters?" I wasn't really sure what I'd call the diamonds, "Yellow and Blue."

"That's a lot to take in too, bud," the guy seemed really concerned, "So, is that's what's been bugging you?"

"Well yeah, and the fact White Diamond temporarily kinda killed me sorta," I said rolling back onto my back, worried what he'd think. I don't know why I was worried, I was used to talking to people all the time about my problems.

The guy placed a hand on my shoulder, "I can't say that I've been through the same thing," he sat up and pulled me up and close, he felt warm sitting so close, "But I ended a war with an alien race known as the Hybreed," the guy shivered a second, "They attacked earth and me and my friends we helpless," the guy frowned and a tear trickled down, "I lost her that day..." he sniffled.

I felt so connected to this guy and suddenly found myself leaping to hug and comfort him. We both were surprised. Just as quickly jumped back, "I'm sorry..." I was blushing hard but I wasn't sure why. I hugged people in beach city all the time and never felt weird.

The guy sniffled and smiled a bit, "No don't be," he grabbed my hand and pulled me close, "It was nice."

I smiled just a bit, I felt my heart beating, "Could I do it again?"

The guy smiled, "I'd like that," he opened his arms and welcomed my hug. As we both embraced each other, we shared our pain and our feelings of loss. We knew that we understood each other and that's what mattered. We felt our inner lights merge and become one and then...

"Woah..." we said, "Um... who are you... I mean I...I mean," we walked to the ocean and looked at our reflection in the lustrous still surface. What we saw was a guy in a green and vertical white striped jacket, a black shirt with a star on it and the number 10 in the middle of it. The hair was longer, like a mullet almost and deep brown and on our wrist was that weird watch, "Who are... we?" We thought about that, and it was now I realized I didn't know this guys name. Suddenly his name appeared in my mind and with it gave me a name for us, "I think we're, Benjeven."

I waited for the fusion of me and Ben to break apart, but it didn't.

"I've never felt this before," Benjeven said, "It's so nice," a tear rolled down our eye, "So comforting," we yawned, "Hey, um, wanna go take a nap?" we both laughed, as Benjeven, "Cause some sleep sounds delightful," we hugged ourselves, "I think that sounds nice."

We headed towards the temple, and for the first time in months, I slept peacefully.


	2. War of the World

**War of the Worlds**

"Okay, nothing fancy. We go in, we destroy the hyperspace jump gate, and we capture any Highbreed we find. That's it." Ben stated as walked towards the shielded Highbreed operation, "Oh and one more thing." Ben turned back to face the group of people who'd joined forces. "Whatever we before, today we're a team. We look out for each other. We win or lose together." He dialed around on his watch, the Omnitrix, and there grew a bright flash of green light. He'd changed into a large white alien with yellow plating. His voice was deep and harmonious, "CANNONBOLT!"

Ben's red-haired cousin, Gwen, looked in surprise, "Haven't seen him in a while."

Ben, as Cannonbolt, turned to her, "What can I say, I'm feeling nostalgic."

The group of teens, accompanied by Professor Paradox and Azmuth followed Ben as he vanished into the cloaked dome that hid the Highbreed operation. When they entered, they found themselves in a whole new world. There were inches upon inches of snow falling from within the cloaked dome, with winds that made even the Pyronite teen feel chilly. Hundreds of thousands of DNAliens patrolled the snow-covered base. Ben let out a sigh of relief that they went unnoticed as they got to cover.

"Alright, Benjamin, what's the plan?" came Paradox's voice. He seemed awfully relaxed for someone on the precipice of war, with his hands pocketed.

"Kevin, you take Cooper and drive us a diversion," Ben said, pointing to the muscular Osmosian with the tricked out car behind him and the younger technopath sitting on the hood. "Meanwhile, Gwen, you and Allen take to the skies in order to give them cover," he said, pointing to the girl in the blue vest, then to the flaming teenage alien, coated in molten rocks. "As for you three," Ben looked at Azmuth, Paradox, and an edgy teen in a metal helmet, "I want you all making sure no DNAliens make it out of here or activate that warp gate from this side."

The edgy teen looked at Ben. His arms crossed and his eyes, barely visible through the metal dome, were squinted, "Then what are you going to do, Ben?" His deep, raspy voice echoed around in his chrome dome.

Ben smiled a toothy grin, "I'm taking Ship and Julie and heading straight to the control tower," Ben pointed a claw to a large towering structure neighboring the jump gate. "When we get there, Ship will take the form of a specialized stealth-mech suit while we sneak inside their communication hub."

Julie, the girl in the pink sweater, gave me a thumbs up and her alien dog, a small black blob with green techno lines scattered on it, began yip quietly saying, "Ship!"

"Does everyone understand the plan?" Ben asked the group.

The majority of the group nodded and verbally agreed, but Azmuth leered and voiced his opinion, "I would suggest, if you're going for stealth and efficiency, you choose something like your Kineceleran or Aerophibian forms rather than an Arburian Pelarota."

Ben thought about that and tapped the Omnitrix, now on his torso. There was a huge flash of light followed by a howl.

"A Laboan?" Azmuth looked confused.

"Look, Azmuth, Benwolf has far superior senses as well as better combat when the time comes," Ben said, his voice was now much gruffer, "Now, is everyone else clear on the plan?" Everyone seemed confident, while Azmuth still felt reserved on Ben's choice; however, even he couldn't deny Ben knew how to use the Omnitrix in combat better than himself, "Well alright, let's go!"

Kevin and Cooper hopped in a green muscle car and drove headfirst into a large gathering of DNAliens. The car had transformed to have weapons on it, much more armor, as well as a specialized interior that allowed Cooper and Kevin to drive and fire weapons with ease.

Following them, Gwen and Allen took to the sky, Gwen by running on shimmering pink magical platforms and Allen by using a small chunk of earth to propel himself into the air via fire.

Paradox, Azmuth, and, the edgy teen, Dark Star, headed to edges of the shielding to watch for DNAliens who might attempt to escape.

Julie whistled loudly to her blob-like dog, "Ship, let's go!"

"Ship Ship!" the blob called out in a chipper-robotic voice. It wrapped itself into a ring and spun around, growing as large as an inner tube until it began to form a cube. The cube grew even larger as the wings of a ship sprouted out from its sides and weapons down from the wings. As Ship finished transforming, his voice bellowed through the night sky, "Ship!" His voice had become deep and monstrous as he hovered above the two as a large alien spaceship. A large ramp lowered and allowed Ben and Julie inside.

With the distraction from Kevin and Cooper and cover from Gwen and Allen, Ben and Julie flew nearly unnoticed towards the communications tower.

"Alright, Julie, when we get an opening we're going to jump," Ben grabbed hold of her. "Once we've landed safely inside the tower, Ship will go into a stealth-mech mode."

Julie nodded her head and hugged Ben tightly, "Alright, you ready Ship?"

A small part of Ship popped up from the console and nodded, "Ship."

The two arrived quickly at the top of the tower where a single, armed Highbreed commander and five DNAliens guards. The guards appeared to be taking an order from their commander.

"Alright, Ship, take us higher, then open the hatch," the large ramp opened, "Julie, hang on tight!" Ben jumped from the edge, gripping Julie for dear life. The two were in free fall heading towards the Highbreed commander and his guards.

"Ben, how did you plan on landing?" Julie yelled.

Ben chuckled, "Simple." His mouth unhinged and split down the center on the top and bottom. He took a deep breath and let loose a sonic howl directly down on top of the Highbreed commander and his DNAlien generals. The resulting sonic howl struck the targets with such force, they were knocked over and incapacitated. As the ground grew closer Ben's ears twitched, "Alright Julie, this is your stop." her back upwards with a howl.

She was in a panic, flailing her arms and restraining her screams the best she could until she became encased within her favorite 'dog'. "What the- Ship?"

From the newly formed screen in front of her, Ship's smiling circle glowed bright, "Ship Ship!"

Ben watched Julie become encased, letting out a sigh of relief that she'd be safe. He swiftly turned and focused on the fallen Commander and Soldiers. With a mere thought, there was a green flash and Ben went from Wolfman to Mummy as he became a pile of bandages atop his fallen foes.

Shortly after Ben landed, Julie landed in her mech, "Ben?" Julie called out quietly, "Ready?"

The bandages slowly took the form of a humanoid mummy with the face of a pharaoh's mask and sported the Omnitrix on its chest. He clenched his fist and looked at her with a smile in his eyes, "I'm always ready, Jules." He voice was deep and regal and seemed to echo throughout his body, "Now, let's take this place down."

The duo walked into the hatch located on the floor that led to the lower levels. "Alright, Ship, give us directions to the communications hub." Within the mech, Julie watched a map appear and direct them to their destination, "Alright, Ben, follow us," Julie quietly walked towards a stairwell doorway, "So, Ben, I've seen a lot of your aliens before, but never those last few," she opened the door and looked down the stairwell, signaling Ben to follow, "Well you've told me about the Cannonbolt one, but who is this one and the last one?"

Ben rubbed his chin piece on his pharaoh mask of a face, "If I'm correct, neither gained appropriate names beyond 'Ben Wolf' and 'Ben Mummy'," he shrugged, "I didn't use them often after obtaining them, and once I put the Omnitrix back on they weren't available," Ben felt the Omnitrix, "Well, until today."

Julie stopped walking, she swore she'd heard a sigh of some sort from Ben, "What's wrong, Ben?"

Ben stopped three steps lower than her, staring at the floor. "I'm honestly terrified," Ben said, still with his hand over the Omnitrix.

Julie place her mech hand on his shoulder, "Tell me why," She looked around, "No one's around and we have a bit of time to spare, don't we?"

Ben stopped touching the Omnitrix, and placed his bandage hand upon hers, "Let's keep moving, but yeah I'll tell you as we walk," Ben said, as he continued walking. They continued down the stairs slowly and carefully, "Julie, I love using the Omnitrix, it's helped me save thousands of people; but, I know that someday I'll have to put the Omnitrix away and join back in with the world."

Julie gave Ben a puzzled look, "You don't want to become a plumber or full-time hero?"

Ben clutched the Omnitrix again, "I'd love to, but I've seen my future, long ago I'll admit, but I watched that Ben Ten become engulfed with the power of the Omnitrix and what he could do. He'd forgotten about the fun of using the Omnitrix, about Gwen, about... Grandpa Max..." Ben stopped, and slowly moved his hand away from the Omnitrix again, "I don't want to end up like that, Jules..." Ben slowly looked up to her. He may have been undead, but he was closed to tears as he looked into her eyes, "I don't ever want to forget about Gwen, Grandpa, and... you..."

Julie opened the mech's front and quickly hopped out before they entered the next room, "Ben look at me." Ben slowly met her eyes, "Do you know what I see, Ben," she asked.

"You see, a friend, a hero, a maniac?" Ben asked.

She held his bandage hands in her own, "I see someone I love," she kissed his mask on the lips. The two were lost in another world for a small amount of time, looking into each other's eyes and realizing their love for each other, "Now, let's save the world so you and I can enjoy it," Julie jumped back into her mech.

While he couldn't emote with facial expressions, there was a new aura of confidence and joy coming from Ben, "Alright, let's do this."

With the use of the mech, the door to the communications hub opened silently. Ben stepped lightly as Julie followed behind. Their prior tone of love had nearly vanished as they entered the room. Neither made a sound nor took a breath.

"We are mere moments away from activation, sir," came a voice that sounded as if someone was gargling water while speaking into a microphone, "Please inform the general they can proceed in T-five earth minutes."

"Very well, Commander," came another voice, obviously from a sound system or communicator, "We will be prepared to launch on your mark." The sound of a screen powering down was the only thing to ring through the air.

Ben looked to Julie, "Alright, I'm going to get close and wrap him up, then you and Ship connect with the computer and shut down the communication's tower, then the weather tower, and finally cut the power to the jump gate," Ben unraveled and headed towards the Highbreed commander. With a loose wrap, Ben coiled and encased the commander's lower half quickly without his noticing, but once it came to his top half he had to be quick; so, with a swift tighten, he wrapped around his torso and head, leaving his face un-obscured.

"What is going on," the commander struggled, "This is an outrage! You lower lifeforms are nothing more than despicable filth!"

"Enough talking, Highbreed commander," Ben's voice echoed around the room in a deep, raspy, undead voice, "I think it's time you quiet down!" Ben's pharaoh mask covered his victims face, quickly muting him.

"Julie, work quickly," the bandages began to strain and tear, but he quickly wrapped over them, "I can only hold him for so long."

Julie and Ship quickly melded the mech hand to the computer terminal, starting to hack into the communications computer and began shutting down the systems Ben had told her. Everything was going to plan, until a loud orange alarm blared throughout the area with a simple warning coming from the computer, "Unauthorized Galvanic Mechamorph detected in system." With a burst of electricity from a surprise compartment, Julie and Ship were shocked and fired away from the console, "Activating magnetic containment field." A light appeared from the ceiling and surrounded Ship and Julie.

The Galvanic Mechamorph began to ripple like water and morphed against its will. "Ship," came the Mechamorph's voice, hellish and distorted. The mech slowly began to open until Julie was visible.

"More filthy humans," the Highbreed commander grumbled, his voice muffled from Ben's wrappings, "I'll end this pathetic attempt of infiltration now!" Suddenly, he stopped struggling and tearing at Ben. He quickly mustered up a burst of incredible strength and ripped all of Ben's wrappings apart, freeing himself. "Now, feeble human, you and your galvanic pet will be terminated!" He walked to the stomped over to the system where Ship and Julie were lying helplessly and began typing in an alien language, "As for you, Thep Khufan, I don't know why you've allied yourself with these humans," he finished typing and turned to face Ben while carrying Ship and Julie, "I thought we'd come to some form of an agreement when your planetary dignitary met with us and formed a peace treaty of sorts."

"I'm not sure what you're talking about," Ben said, he kept attempting to will his body to regrow but it was useless. He could feel the ripped bandages failing to repair, "But I can promise I'm not aware of any peace treaty."

The Highbreed commander sneered at Ben, "Oh is that so..." The commander picked up Ship and Julie, heading towards some kind of machine, "In that case, Anur Transyl is our next destination after we destroy the earth!" With a flash of light and they disappeared.

With them gone, Ben pushed his limits and kept attempting to regenerate. He could feel the bandages move slightly to reconnect and grow but only for a millisecond. He just as quickly felt himself snapback to being unable to move again.

"One last thing, Thep Khufan, I've left you a little present on your bandages," came the commander's voice from the computer, "From an alien species we long since enslaved, it's gaseous mixture that inhibits cellular regeneration all together," the Highbreed wasn't visible to Ben, but he could feel the commander's smile, "You should be able to regenerate eventually, once your bandages are cleansed," from outside of the communication tower there grew a whirring, "Ah, good to see that the jump gate is powering up," there was a small amount of silence followed by a strange chuckle, "Maybe I should both top off the fuel mixture as well as dispose of this human!"

With a cut off from the computer, Ben went into a full panic, "Julie!" Ben cried out in agony and fear. He couldn't move, his could barely speak, and to make things worse...

"Ben?" his Omnitrix rang, "Ben can you hear me?"

Ben focused and tried to use one of his dismembered hands to tap the Omnitrix, "I'm here," Ben managed to yell, "What's going on?"

"Ben!" came his cousin's voice, "We've been able to keep the DNAliens neutralized and contained, but the jump gate has started powering up. What's going on?"

"I've been ripped apart, and can't regenerate, the highbreed commander has paralyzed Ship with Julie in it, and he's about to throw the pair of them into a reactor or fuel chamber or something!" Ben screamed at the Omnitrix. His voice was hoarse and fading, and staying like this was like being in hell, "So someone, go guard the fuel chamber and someone come and fix me please!"

Azmuth's voice cut over the line, he seemed generally annoyed, but there was just a hint of concern. "Why do you need someone to help you? Even if you're disassembled, the Omnitrix should allow you to transform back to a human at the bare minimum and repair any damage."

"Azmuth, I can barely reach the Omnitrix as is and your 'master control' isn't helping at all!" Ben staggered to say, he felt himself going mute with his fading words. Julie was in trouble and he couldn't move to save her. So what's the greatest mind in three galaxies to say? Nothing helpful that's for damn sure , Ben thought.

"Ben you need, calm down," Azmuth said over the com system, "The Omnitrix is reacting to your state of mind. So while it's clouded and angry you'll be limited or shut down."

"Come on, Ben," just calm down for a minute so you can fix yourself, then go kick some Highbreed ass!" Kevin shouted over the com system.

Ben slowly took deep breaths and tried to clear his mind, "Alright, fine..." There was a flash of green light and Ben felt himself come together and return to normal size. When the light faded Ben was lying on the floor as a human. He touched the Omnitrix, "Alright it worked, I'm gonna head to catch up Julie."

"Alright, Tennyson, be careful," Kevin said.

"We'll be above you," Gwen called out.

Ben glared out the window. He had a small headache, but it was nothing compared to how he was going to make the Highbreed pay.

There was a flash of light as Ben quickly turned into a blue raptor-like alien on orb-like wheels. His voice had become higher pitched and seemed to be robotically synthesized, "I'm on my way, Jules." In the blink of an eye, Ben had disappeared leaving only a blue and black light trail behind him. He ran down several flights of stairs before making it outside to the fighting, "Get out of the way," there was another flash and Ben switched back into the large yellow ball of an alien known as Cannonbolt, plowing through dozens of DNAliens on his way to the jump gate; however, a squad of Highbreed were inbound. "I'm not in the mood to fight you right now, get out of my way!"

With another green flash, Ben jumped, retaining his momentum, and took the form of a large blue lizard-like alien. His voice now sounded similar to a native male of Jamaica, "Just cool it," his voice was filled with anger and annoyance as he unleashed a chilling blue beam of icy energy to freeze the highbreed in a block of ice.

While in the air there was another flash of light as Ben took one more new form. A red four armed alien that stood nearly 10 feet tall, his voice nasally and deep, "Alright commander," Ben said his teeth grinding, as he bounded off of the ground and into the air, "Let's see how you stack up to Fourarms!"

The Highbreed commander holding Ship and Julie turned around, "A Tetramand," he set the two down, "I don't have time for this." As Ben was falling towards him, he waited until Ben was mere seconds away, in which he reeled back and gave the Tetramand Tennyson a mean left hook. Ben was unmoved and nearly unfazed, "I have miscalculated," the commander said as Ben's four fists collided with his skull.

"You do not threaten my world!" Ben shouted as he pummeled the Highbreed into the snow-covered ground, "You don't threaten my family!" Ben began to draw blood of a purple nature, "And you especially do not threaten my love!" Ben recoiled all four arms and punched his skull flat against the earth. Ben was panting, he'd never taken a life on his own accords. As the moment hit him, there was another green flash. There now stood the fifteen-year-old human, Ben, as he walked toward Julie, still mildly in a haze, "Julie, I'm coming..." Ben was almost stumbling as he walked to her and Ship.

"Ben?" Julie asked, her voice faint, "Is that you?"

"Yes Julie, it's me," Ben said falling on top of Ship. It looked inside and his happiness faded quickly, as did the color in his face, "Julie..." his voice quivered, and his body began to shake nearly uncontrollably.

"I know Ben..." She was tearing up. Inside the mech, her body had been pierced with dozens of Mechamorph spikes that had been made by the magnetic field, "But I don't think there's anything you can do..." her voice was even fainter, and was like wisps of wind.

"Jules- I- But- You can't-" Ben was stumbling with his words, he couldn't accept this. He held her hand and she smiled at him as her faint grip on life faded into the air. "Julie?" Ben shook her hand, "Julie!?" Tears had begun to form in his eyes. "Julie!" Ben broke down crying next to his love, he didn't want to accept this. He whipped the tears from his face when the green shimmer of the Omnitrix shone in the snowy war zone, "I won't accept it..." he quietly said to himself.

In what felt like slow motion, Ben dialed through the Omnitrix by hand until he found the alien of his desire. He pressed down on the faceplate and he suddenly felt the universe at his fingertips. His human body became surrounded by stars and space, and two floating green faces stood before him.

"Look who's returned, Bellicus," came a sassy female voice from the feminine face.

"Yes, Serena, it's Ben Tennyson," came an angry and grumpy voice from the masculine face.

"What do you want," the two asked in unison, their voice filled with malice and displeasure.

Ben didn't move a muscle, he barely looked at either of them, but spoke sternly, "I wish to make a motion."

Either of the two parts of this alien were caught off guard, "Um... go ahead?" said Serena. She noticeably seemed caught off guard and slightly worried.

"I motion to revive the woman, Julie Pierce, from death," Ben's voice was monotonous, almost eerily so.

"You simply think that you can show up and make a motion as if you didn't hurt our feelings the last time you used your Omnitrix to become one with us?" Bellicus asked, mildly sarcastic, yet still with some hints of sincerity.

"Do I have to repeat myself?" Ben asked, still not breaking his prior tone.

"Benjamin, we understand you are in need of use, but you could at least answer our questions," Serena said, her voice now caring instead of sassy.

"Yes," Ben said with little to no emotion.

"Yes, what?" Bellicus asked, annoyed and a bit perturbed.

"Yes, I do think I can show up and make a motion," Ben stated speckles of anger popping into the words he spoke, "I think, as the voice of reason, I can make a small request once and a while."

"Benjamin, are you okay?" Serena asked. The fear in her voice was now growing present.

"I'll ask once more," Ben slowly looked up. His eyes appeared lifeless, but his face displayed anger, pain, and loss, "I motion to revive the woman, Julie Pierce, from death," he was almost yelling but kept his cool.

The two faces looked at each other worried, "Um... are you sure?"

"I am absolutely sure..." Ben grunted loudly.

"Well then," Bellicus cleared his throat, "I second the motion..."

"Motion carr-" Serena started to announce, before quickly getting cut off by another voice.

"Benjamin," an elderly man's voice yelled throughout the alien's head, "Stop!"

With a bright blue flash of light, Ben found himself laying next to the mech with Julie still within it, dead... Beside Ben was Paradox.

"Why did you do that, Paradox," Ben yelled, grabbing at his shoulders, "They were going to bring her back!" Ben pounded his fist lazily into Paradox's chest, "They were going to bring her... back..." Ben fell to the ground in tears, still clutching Paradox's coat.

"Benjamin, I know you will not soon forgive me for that, but you cannot use Alien X to revive her," Paradox said, patting Ben on the back with a 'there-there' motion.

"Why, Paradox, why?" Ben was now simply blank in the mind. He didn't know what he had left he could do in his life.

"I wish I could tell you Ben, but..." Paradox looked at his pocket watch, "I'm sorry, but I have to go before you realize what you have to do now." Paradox disappeared in a blue flash of light.

"Ben!" Gwen's voice cried through the Omnitrix, "Come in Ben, we just lost hold on the DNAliens we had contained and the Highbreed you contained in ice broke free." There was a moment of silence, "Ben, did you hear me? The jump gate is going to resume opening."

Ben got to his feet and looked at the Jump gate. He wasn't sure what to do at first. He didn't have an alien big enough to destroy something that large. "Wait..." Ben thought aloud, "What am I talking about..."

Ben quickly tapped the Omnitrix, opening the comlink. "No it's not Gwen," Ben said as he dialed the Omnitrix by hand once more to the largest alien contained in the Omnitrix, "I've got this."

He pressed down once again on the faceplate and began to grow bigger and bigger until he reached his height of 200 feet tall. His skin had become white and he was dressed with red trimmings. He had blade-like protrusions coming from his elbows and one large fin from his head. His new voice was deeper than ever before but still held a semblance of his original voice, "Waybig!"

"I forgot about that one," Gwen said with shock.

Ben tapped the Omnitrix, opening the comlink one more time. "Please make sure Julie gets a proper burial," Ben's eyes narrowed as the jump gate whirred to life, "And please always remember me..."

Ben ran at the jump gate full speed. He knew at this rate the gate would open and he'd only have seconds to act, but he'd made the choice that his sacrifice would be needed. He would end the War of the Worlds and finally bring about peace for his world, his family, and his love, Julie's, soul.

With a final stride, the gate opened and Ben flung himself through while grabbing onto the top of the jump gate causing it to come crumbling down backward. Ripping itself up from the ground. Ending the War of the Worlds before it began

It also meant Ben was to travel literally anywhere in space due to breaking the connection in the way he did.

He opened his eyes and saw he was floating in space, cold and dark. The stars had always looked so beautiful, but now they were passive bystanders, watching him drift helplessly away.

Stars. There were so many stars, and the brightest one- no... that wasn't a star. It was a beam of light! Something that could help him.

His heart began to pound in his ears. He thought he was saved until he realized he couldn't move. The alien he was right now couldn't move in space and was starting to become light-headed, he was growing terrified. He knew he needed to change aliens, but he only had one he could think of for this situation that could at least let him survive. He touched the Omnitrix and felt himself becoming the same type of alien as Ship. A Galvanic Mechamorph, the liquid metal being.

As the light grew closer, Ben realized it was a ship, one that could rescue him. He stretched out his arm and attached to the ship. When he puddled inside, the only thing he noticed was a human at the helm... well, a human with pink hair and pink skin.

Ben stowed away quietly for a few days, staying as a Galvanic Mechamorph until they landed. Five days went by with no food, no human contact, no... anything. Ben was lucky that Mechamorphs didn't need to eat or sleep. Lucky that he could spend all his time wondering why Julie had to be the one to die. Lucky that he could be the one trapped in another place in the universe. Lucky that he was probably never going to see home again. He was the luckiest damn person in the entire freaking universe, and he had five long days to think about all the luck he had.

On day six of staying hidden, he was jostled around his hiding spot, splatted against the walls and door until everything stopped with a thud. Using the computer in his hiding spot, he abused his natural technopathic abilities to find that they had landed. He scurried outside to find a band concert happening, decided to duck behind the stage instead of listening to the music. He was happy he did too because, behind the stage, there was plenty of food to eat. Even better, he'd spotted a good place to hide near the edge of the local city, an old car wash, which he wasted no time hurrying towards.

Once he was out of sight, Ben turned human consumed all of the food he'd taken from the backstage in mear minutes. He then quickly ran inside the car wash to use their restroom, even though no one was there.

Ben still couldn't believe what had happened, where he was, anything... He was alone...

Well, that was until he found a strange boy walking along the beach a few nights later.


	3. A Change of Mind

**A Change of Mind**

Warm breath tickled Steven's face as he slowly drifted awake. "Lion," he mumbled with a laugh, "That tickles!" Steven slowly opened his eyes and was greeted by a large orange beastly dog creature. It had small hind legs and arms as long as its body. It seemed to have no eyes but could seem to 'see' Steven just fine. Huge canine teeth jutted out from it's lower jaw, and it slobbered and panted like a pit bull. "Uhh... you're not lion..." Steven said, a bit thrown off. He knew he wasn't awake, he was laying on the floor in a place that resembled where Stevonnie learned how to meditate and focus together.

Steven also realized he had someone's arms around him. He'd started blushing inside his own head. He didn't know that cuddling like this could make someone feel so safe and comfortable...

His thoughts about Ben holding him were quickly interrupted by a rough, wet, slobber filled tongue running along his face.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about you." Steven slowly tried to wiggle out of Ben's arms, not wanting to wake him. He looked so... adorable? Steven wasn't sure what word he wanted to use. Ben with his ruffled auburn hair, his little drool on the floor, and his very caring hold on Steven. Maybe... Cute?

As he finally wriggled free, the strange orange dog nudged Steven. It seemed to be trying to coax him onto its back.

"Okay," Steven said, petting the dog-like creature, "I'll get on." He gave a small chuckle, still trying to figure out how the dog could see.

The dog turned away from where Ben was still sleeping and started off in some form of a trot. As the two picked up speed, the pooch's tongue hung out in the wind. a thick rope of slobber trailing behind them.

"Um... excuse me, but where are we going?" Steven asked, "Aren't we in my own head?"

The dog creature seemed to turn its head up to 'look' at Steven. From its mouth bellowed the strangest ear piercing primal screech he'd ever heard that was paired with a deep and mellow lion-like roar.

Steven covered his ears during the strange roaring noise, "I'll take it you can't talk either?" Steven seemed to fake a small laugh as the two continued to cross the seemingly empty place that was inside the head of Benjeven. Well... empty until Steven noticed a huge army of people standing in the distance. "Uh... who are those people?" Steven asked the dog creature. It was rather disturbing to notice that there were what looked like over fifty people inside his own fusion's mind. Some of them were bigger than Obsidian! The dog creature didn't respond this time, not even glancing toward Steven.

Suddenly, the two came to a stop in front of a large green protrusion that looked similar to something Steven had seen, but he couldn't place it. The protrusion was circular and stuck up nearly three feet from the ground. On two parallel sides were smaller gray cylinders that protruded only about a foot from the sides. On the perpendicular sides, there were two smooth, gray rectangular bulges that were very large. On the top there was a faceplate that had a gray outline with a lit up green hourglass, the remaining space on the faceplate was black.

"Uh..." Steven was confused as to what this thing was, even with it being familiar. "Hey... Wild... Dog... guy, what did you bring me here for?"

The 'Wild Dog Guy' shook Steven off of his back and walked around to the opposing side of the strange green thing. It seemed to want Steven to examine the object, but there wasn't much he could do.

Steven walked around the thing, fiddling with the cylinders on either side, but nothing happened. Next, he tried banging on the faceplate. Again, nothing happened. He even found that the gray part of the faceplate could spin, but after spinning around and around with nothing happening he gave up on that avenue. He was getting frustrated, and in a small tantrum, he kicked the strange green object, hitting one of the gray rectangular protrusions. There was a loud beep and the entire faceplate was boosted another two feet into the air. A holographic display appeared above it showing a figure that resembled the 'Wild Dog Guy'.

Steven was flabbergasted at this strange thing in front of him and tried to spin the gray faceplate as he did before. He spun for a few seconds, making two full rotations until his fingers slipped and he fell down. "Okay, that's kinda cool." Steven got up and looked back to the holographic display. It had changed from the dog to some new, a strange humanoid looking pile of liquid with a small thing over its head. "Oh so when I spin it, I see a new picture," Steven's eyes lit up with stars, "I wonder what else it can show!" He continued to spin and look multiple times. Getting: A four-armed muscular guy, a large dinosaur man, some strange werewolf, and then some strange human with dreadlocks looking hair that also had plugs on it... "What is this thing?" Steven queried aloud.

"It's called the Omnitrix." A deep, nasally voice rang. The origin of that voice, Steven soon found was the four-armed muscle guy he'd seen earlier.

"Well, it's kind of the Omnitrix," came a much deeper and smoother voice, "It's more a figurative one." This voice belonged to the dinosaur, a rather large and scary one, Steven thought.

"Oh come on guys, this is clearly here to help the kid cope with his problem." Came a high pitched voice that sounded like it was from underwater and over a phone, yet somehow still understandable. It was the strange goopy human with the little floating disk

"What problems?" Steven asked, "I don't have any problems that you guys can help with that involve this large... Omnitrick?" Steven was a bit confused.

"No no no, not Omni-tick," came a strangely normal voice, but with a hint of... feedback, "Omni-trix," this new humanoid thing said, "Trix, with an 'x'." He was rather obnoxious, treating Steven as if he was just a little kid, but he had a feeling this thing was powerful beyond what Steven was seeing.

"Would you leaving the poor child alone," came one more voice, deep and gruff, "He's no ten-year-old and he clearly has some kind of magic if he can also see inside Ben's strange mental conception of the Omnitrix and us."

Steven only blinked. He honest to god didn't know what to say in this situation.

"I'll take it you're here to find out what happened with Ben recently?" came the voice from the liquid person.

"Uh... I'm not sure," Steven was still looking around at the various creature in shock and surprise, "The only reason I came here was because the Wild Dog Guy brought me here."

The Wild Dog Guy came around the other side of the Omnitrix and seemed to be almost flustered. He sneered and made some form of dog whining mixed with lion grunting.

"His name is Wildmutt," the four armed guy said, "We all have names you know." He seemed mildly perturbed, putting one set of hands on his hips and folding the other upper set.

"Oh!" Steven said, not having realized these creatures may have names, "Well then may I know your names?" His eyes had grown big with a childlike smile to follow.

The large werewolf creature chuckled, "Well you can call me... Benwolf," he said, referring to himself. He then walked over to the remaining cast of creatures. "This here is, as we introduced you, is Wildmutt," Wildmutt gave me a thumbs up, "Then you have Four Arms, Humongosaur, Goop, and Feedback," Benwolf said with a familiar tone to his voice, almost soft and gentle.

"Hello," Steven said with a chipper smile and small wave, "My name is Steven, and I'm sorry I don't know why Wildmutt brought me here exactly."

"How exactly are you here?" Goop asked me, he seemed to have some form of an eyebrow raised.

"What do you mean?" Steven asked, a bit confused by Goop's question.

"How are you here," Goop said, referencing the entire space they were in, "Inside Ben's head?"

"Oh!" Steven said, finally understanding what he was saying. Steven smiled, "Well it's called fusion, when two people understand each other enough that they become a whole new person." Steven blushed and quietly let out, "A whole new experience."

Benwolf approached Steven calmly, "So you and Ben are one person right now?"

"Yeah, we fused after we talked about the hardships we both just faced," Steven recalled, "We both comforted each other and then when we hugged... Well, you know what happened now."

Humongasaur walked forwards and looked down to Steven, "So you don't know what happened with Ben during the war in Los Soledad?"

"Um... he said someone died and that he saved the world..." Steven became reserved quickly, now twiddling his thumbs and looking down at the ground.

Humongasaur looked back to the others, "If Ben and Steven are able to fuse together, then he ought to know what Ben's been through." Humongasaur walked to the Omnitrix and rotated it as Steven had done before; however, the image above it did not show a new person. Now it showed something like a media player with a play button, "Once I press play, you'll see what Ben went through and we'll all disappear back into the Omnitrix."

Benwolf knelt down next to Steven, "You don't have to watch if you don't want," he placed a hand on his back, "It's very traumatic, and you didn't even ask."

Steven looked up into Benwolf's eyes, "I want to know," he said quietly, "I want to understand what he went through..." Steven was blushing a bit again, I want to comfort him and make him feel whole again.

"Alright," Humongasaur said, growing four times bigger. With a mighty heave, he slammed his fists down on the Omnitrix, playing the Clip.

"Okay, nothing fancy..." the video rolled, showing the event that would later be called: The War of the Worlds.

_**Meanwhile...**_

Ben slowly stirred, he felt as though missing something or, rather, someone. His eyes opened to a squint and saw that he was in some strange endless expanse of space. "Okay... Where am I?" Suddenly Ben saw a figure seemingly pop out of the ground what looked like a mile away. The figure looked familiar. Gwen? Ben thought as he got to his feet and began walking towards the figure. As he grew closer another figure appeared, which he recognized as Kevin. "Gwen? Kevin? What are you doing here... where ever here is." Ben yelled, still looking around for something else familiar.

"Well hello, Starlight," came a voice from Gwen's mouth. One that was not her own. "I see you had your fun, pretending to be a hero."

As Ben drew closer, he noticed that both Gwen and Kevin's bodies and clothing were in grayscale. They held their hands, palm side up, with icy cool stares that were blank and lifeless. "Gwen, what's wrong with your voice?"

There was no response to his question, but Kevin was next to speak... in the same strange woman's voice, "Oh, Starlight, it's time for you to stop pretending to be something you're not," Kevin smiled with a disturbing toothy grin and knocked Ben to the ground. It was then Gwen used her once lustrous pink shine to restrain Ben. The gray colored mana restraints wrapped Ben's legs and ankles together as well as keeping his arms restrained to his body. With him restrained, Kevin approached the incapacitated Ben and began to rip the green watch-like device away from his wrist. The band began to slowly crock and snap like rubbed under pressure and Ben's skin began to slowly tear away from the device's underside. Ben had felt this before, and even at Kevin's own hand, but never like this. This was manual forced removal. He could feel every fiber of skin under the Omnitrix slowly tearing and hair being plucked. He screamed in pain before blacking out.

As Ben's eyes opened, he saw Kevin and Gwen holding the Omnitrix in their possession. He slowly looked over to his wrist. Where the Omnitrix rested, there was a ragged circle of red, glistening like raw meat, blood welling up around the edges of the wound. The surrounding skin burned, hot as a Ruby in a blind rage. Ben whinnied and mumbled, but finally got out some words, "How could you..." Ben asked shivering, "I thought this friendship meant something. I thought it was special..." Ben stared nearly blankly at Kevin.

"Special?" Kevin spoke, still in the woman's voice, "What about you, let alone this friendship, is special?"

Ben couldn't respond, somewhat due to pain, but mostly due to shock.

"Kevin has his natural Osmosian abilities," Gwen said in the voice.

"And Gwendoline has her magic and Anodite bloodline," Kevin follow up.

The two looked down to Ben and spoke in harmony, "But what do you have?"

"Th-Th-The Omnitrix..." Ben stuttered, seeming even colder.

"Oh, you mean the alien device that wasn't meant for you?" Gwen's body spoke.

"The device that you only seem to use to make others feel less than yourself?" Came Kevin.

"What are you talking about?" Ben felt light-headed, as his voice grew quiet and wispy.

"You've been using this little trinket to not only make yourself feel better than your naturally gifted friends, but even your human ones," Gwen crept close to Ben's face, "Always encouraging them to be better and get stronger, until you watch them expire, and only you remain. Ben Tennyson. The strongest, by comparison."

Ben felt something inside him snap, something he didn't know could snap, "You bitch," Ben said with a newfound sense hatred, "Don't you dare say I use the Omnitrix to make myself feel better than you." Ben got to his feet. "Don't you dare say that I think I'm stronger, in any sense of the word than you two." Ben felt the blood drip to the ground and his hand grip tingly, "And don't you dare even entertain the idea that I encouraged or welcomed Julie's death!" Ben screamed, his voice traveled throughout the strange empty land.

"So you're telling me, that you don't use this alien device that gives you the powers of millions of other lifeforms to make others feel worthless?" Asked Kevin in the woman's voice, "I guess you think that using this thing makes you a hero." Kevin laughed.

Ben stumbled a few feet forward, "I am a hero though..." Ben said as he fell to the ground, blacking out yet again.

"Ben..." came a quiet familiar and comforting voice, "Ben, are you okay?"

Ben slowly opened his eyes, the struggle was a strain on his head, but he saw the wonderful vision of Julie holding him in her lap.

"Ben," the voice became a bit more masculine, but still held the comforting tone, "Ben please wake up."

Ben focused harder and watched Julie's face fade and become replaced by the younger teen. "Steven..." Ben said, a tear in his eye.

"Ben!" Steven said pulling Ben in for a hug, crying himself into Ben's shoulder, "I'm so sorry for what you've been through... the loss."

Ben still had not returned the hug, he was in shock. If Steven saw my past, somehow. Did I see something like what he went through? Ben was scared at that though. Someone needed to be here for Steven, someone who knew what he went through. Having a part of him ripped away. His friends slave to this strange white and gray person. He finally returned Steven's hug with something he'd not expected. Something that ignored the pain on his wrist. Something that he'd only felt once before. He felt love...

The two people pulled back and looked into each other's eyes, they'd both felt something being this close. This new level of understanding and trust.

The two were mere inches apart, electricity crackling in the air between them. Each could feel the breath of the other lightly brushing his skin. Steven's were shallow, while Ben's Came out shuddering.

"So..." Steven gulped, blushing redder than Garnet's gems, "Can I..."

Ben slowly pulled Steven's face close, kissing Steven's tender lips. He was moving fast. He would never make a move on someone else this quickly, but he and Steven were literally one person. He felt that both he and Steven knew each other as if they knew themselves personally. Ben was realizing, he didn't just feel the love from this boy... he was in love with this boy. This strange boy he had met on the beach. This boy who had pulled him up on his darkest day.

He'd fallen in love with Steven.


	4. Leaving Behind a Life So Kind

**Leaving Behind A Life So Kind**

"STEVEN!" Yelled a shrilling voice, that Steven recognized as Pearl.

Steven's eyes shot open, throwing the covers off both him and the separated Ben. "Pearl, what's wrong!" Steven yelled, manifesting his shield and jumping to action. He looked around trying to find a threat only to find he had tossed Ben nearly onto the floor. "Ben, I'm sorry!"

Ben reacted by suddenly becoming a large sea-foam green crystal creature, he was in a panic, "Steven, what's going on?" His right hand had formed a makeshift sword and the other hand was balled into a fist.

"Pearl, please, there is no need to overreact," came Garnet's calming voice, "It's just Ben's new friend he made last night."

Pearl, who had her spear drawn, lowered her weapon slowly, "Garnet what is he?"

Ben glared a bit and turned his hand back from a sword, "I believe I'm a Petrosapien," said Ben a bit confused tapping his chin, "But I could be a Crystalsapien," he shrugged, "One of those two." Ben tapped the Omnitrix. With a flash of green light, Ben appeared as a human again. "At my core, I'm a human. I just use this device on my wrist to turn me into different aliens."

Pearl relaxed, letting her weapon disappear, "Hello Ben," she nervously extended her hand to the boy, "Nice to meet you."

Ben walked around the bed and gave her a handshake, "Pleased to meet you as well."

Garnet placed a hand on Ben's back, "I'm happy to meet you as well, and my condolences to you about the recent loss you've suffered."

Ben looked at Garnet surprised, "Uh... how do you.."

Garnet lowered her glasses just a tad, winking with her third eye, "Future vision."

Ben was speechless. He'd known about time travel and knew people could time travel, technically; however, he'd never heard of future vision. "That's really cool..." Ben said still perplexed by the idea, "But what exactly does it let you do?"

Garnet sits down on the bed, with Ben and Steven, "My future vision allows me to see down the rivers of possibility," Garnet took a feather from Steven's pillow and tossed it into the air, "Granting me insight into the possible realities our actions move us towards." The feather floated downwards slowly and gently. "However, that doesn't mean I can predict everything," the feather suddenly dropped to the floor without warning.

Ben chuckled, "You sound like someone from my home."

Steven piped up, "You mean that guy, Professor Paradox?"

Ben frowned a little bit, "Yeah, Paradox..."

Garnet stood up and pulled Ben up with her, "I know we can't replace what you lost, but until you can find a way home you are more than welcome to stay with us in the temple," she pulled Ben in for a hug and quietly whispered so only he could hear, "I don't think Steven would mind sharing the bed with you."

Ben blushed hard and whispered back, "Garnet, I... Uh... I wouldn't think..."

Garnet chuckled and let him go, "It's okay, sweetie, I'm just teasing."

Ben blushed even harder, he wanted a distraction to hope to draw attention away from his embarrassment. He couldn't think of anything under the pressure, however, he didn't have to make one up... his stomach growled audible enough that everyone in the house heard it. "Uh... where can someone get some food around here?" Ben said with a weak laugh, trying to hide his embarrassment.

"The only thing open this early is The Big Doughnut," said Pearl, "Unless you would like me to make you something to eat."

Another gem person walked up the stairs to Steven's bed, this time one that was purple white white-ish hair, "I don't think that's gonna happen," she said with a full mouth, still chewing, "We're out of food."

"Amethyst, are you kidding me!" Pearl said, freaking out, "We just went shopping!"

"Yeah, so? Amethyst said, pouting and folding her arms.

Steven pulled on Ben's jacket, "You wanna go get some doughnuts?"

Ben turned and saw Steven's smiling face, he blushed super hard but took Steven's hand as the two walked outside. They headed along the beach, around the temple, to the actual city in Beach City. Ben was smiling with Steven's hand in his, he knew he was trapped here on this weird version of earth, but couldn't think of anyone else to be trapped with.

"Ben," Steven called out squeezing Ben's head, "Your Omnitrix is beeping."

Ben's raised an eyebrow upon inspecting his watch. The Omnitrix was flashing like sonar and releasing a small beep every second or so.

"Is it supposed to do that?" Steven asked, poking at it carefully.

Ben tapped the face plate, "Not typically unless I'm getting a message or something is about to happen," he attempted to activate the Omnitrix. The dial popped up, as usual; however, this time no aliens appeared on the screen. Only a buffering symbol that would signal it being tracked, but different. "Okay that can't be good," Ben tried dialing around to different aliens, but couldn't get anything to pop up. He even found that the mental tie that came with the Master Control wasn't working, "I'm not sure what's up with it-" Ben's stomach growled cutting him off, "But can we get some food before we continue trying to figure it out?"

Steven led Ben to The Big Doughnut, "We'll figure it out, okay, Ben."

Ben smiled, now leaning into Steven a bit, feeling weak, "I know we will Steven."

The two were greeted with a smile by ex-mayor Dewey. He gave Steven his usual order and just asked that he and Ben please leave. It appeared that the beep from the Omnitrix was quite annoying, but he was trying not to be rude.

With their doughnuts eaten, and Ben having some strength, the two headed back towards the temple. The Omnitrix still beeping louder, but also more frequently.

"Steven, do you have any technology-savvy friends?" Ben said, his attention now focused on trying to make the Omnitrix do anything but beep and flash.

"I'd ask Peridot, but she and Lapis are trying to erect a new barn to live in," Steven thought about it, "We could ask Pearl."

Ben nodded, the two began to walk up the temple stairs until it stopped.

The beeping just stopped.

"OH thank goodness," Steven said, he sat down at the outdoor table, "I thought that would never stop."

"I agree," Ben said, sitting in the next to Steven's, "Now to just enjoy some peace."

The two teens sat together calmly. The sun was rising, the wind blowing gently, and Bismuth was charging out the door of the temple in a mild state of panic... wait.

"Steven, where is it!" Bismuth was yelling as she turned to see the two teens, "Where is the Omnitrix!?"

Ben was in shock, as was Steven. "How do you know about the Omnitrix?" Ben asked, hiding his wrist.

Bismuth calmed down a bit, "I knew the alien who built it years ago, a Galvan named Azmuth."

Ben started to breathe deeply. "Wait, what do you mean?"

"Thousands of years ago, when I still lived on Homeworld, Azmuth was asked to join White Diamond as a developer of technology." Ben's mouth was agape, but Bismuth kept going. "When we attempted to conquer his homeworld he'd begun working on the device, but in anger towards White Diamond's actions he never finished the project in fear of what might happen and entrusted the blueprints to me. A new, out of the ground, Bismuth." Her gem lit up and a small roll of paper unfurled and she wasn't lying. These were plans for the Omnitrix Ben wore as a ten-year-old, "So I'll ask again, where is the Omnitrix?"

Ben was hesitant, but held his wrist up, "Right here."

Bismuth marveled at it, "I can't believe it, a working version of the Omnitrix..." She put the blueprints back into her gem and asked, "Can you show me how it works?"

Ben gave a weak smile, "I think so..." Ben gulped and pressed the activation button. The dial rose up as usual and above the faceplate appeared a holographic version of Cannonbolt. He smiled again, "Yes I can, Bismuth, what do you want me to become?"

Bismuth began to rub her hands excitedly, "Oh, one I've wanted to see for a long time, a Tetramand!"

Ben smiled dialed through the Omnitrix until he reached an all to0 familiar transformation. A four-armed muscular alien. He pushed down on the dial and felt the transformation begin. First, the growth of about three feet, then the added arms and hands, then the extra eyes, and the last feature to grow was the muscles. Where Ben once stood was now a ten foot tall four-armed red behemoth of an alien.

"Oh my..." Bismuth said in awe.

The Omnitrix began to beep red as he was quickly transformed back into a human, "Wait, what? There was no way that used that much power." As if more problems were needed, the beeping and flashing returned. "Damn this stupid watch..."

Bismuth approached Ben, "May I inspect it?" She seemed to be holding back some minor giddiness.

"Go right ahead. Azmuth trusted you, so I do." Ben bared his wrist for Bismuth to inspect.

"Hmm," Bismuth pondered, she attempted to use her blueprints to check the Omnitrix as best she could while inspecting it. "I think I know what it might be," she said, as she stood up and walked over to the door. "I think need you to come with me."

Ben looked at Steven. The two of them followed Bismuth into the temple and onto the warp pad.

The three were suddenly warped in a beam of light and landed in some place that dozens of warps.

"Bismuth, why are we at the Galaxy warp?" asked Steven. "I thought none of these worked..."

The sound of a warp pad slowly activating rang out, it was slow and eerie.

"They don't..."

Ben looked around at all the broken warping things. "Why are we here then?"

Bismuth picked up Ben's wrist and tapped the Omnitrix that was not flashing, but not beeping, "Alright, if I read this right..." She fired a green beam from the Omnitrix at one the galaxy warps. The three watched as the green light faded and the warp pad remained the same. "Huh... That was supposed to do something," Bismuth said, scratching her head. She pulled the blueprints back out and continued to read through them, "Maybe if I were to-"

Ben was suddenly encompassed in a bright green light, being forced into a transformation. His body quickly melted and became a sort of liquid metal. It was black and had green circuitry patterns as it stood upright like a man. His voice remained the same but had a synthesized feel to it. "Uh... Bismuth, mind telling me why I just turned into Upgrade?"

Bismuth looked at Ben's new alien form he'd taken, confused to what he was, "Ben, I know of a lot of alien species inside that watch, but what on earth are you?"

Ben's eye, which was just a circle where his face should be, bent downwards making a pie shape. Furrowing a tad as Ben placed his hands on his hips, "Bismuth, you've never seen a Galvanic Mechamorph?" Ben asked, struggling to remember the name correctly. "Azmuth created this race himself."

Bismuth looked back at me with an eyebrow cocked, "Ben, maybe the Azmuth from your world, but my Azmuth never build much beyond weapons for the Diamonds and some assorted other machines that helped us colonize easier. He never had time to build a new race of aliens." She rubbed her head, "What does this alien even do?"

"It allows me to upgrade or change technology," Ben said.

Bismuth snapped, "That's why it gave you that alien!" She said, "The function I activated was supposed to repair the warp, but it looks like instead, it turned you into just the thing to do the job." She slapped Ben on the back, he hand passing through Ben's liquid metal body, "Alright, Ben, go do your thing to that warp pad." She pointed to a large warp pad towards the center.

Ben nodded and walked to the warp pad in question, and stood on top of it. Like a plate of jello in water, Ben puddled onto the warp pad and stretched across and around it until the entire warp pad was coated in black with green circuitry patterns.

"Um... Bismuth why is he fixing the Galaxy warp?" Steven asked Bismuth, he seemed confused.

"Because Ben's Omnitrix is being signaled from somewhere far away," Bismuth watched as Ben slowly but surely repaired the warp pad, "But whoever it is can only make the Omnitrix beep and flash is some form of strange code."

"So why don't we just translate it," Steven asked confused, "Between the Gems and Ben we should have a way right?"

Bismuth shook her head, "Before I came to get you two, I was reading the signal being sent to the Omnitrix and no matter how we translated it the signal came up unusable." Bismuth watched as suddenly the warp pad, with Ben still attached, became active, "My theory is that only part of the signal could get through, but with the Galaxy, warp repaired the signal should be boosted enough to get the signal through at least most of the way."

There was a sudden beeping again, with flashing to boot, from the Omnitrix that sat atop the warp pad.

In the midst of beeping and warp noises there was a faint voice, "Hello, Benjamin, can you hear me?" The voice was filled with static but was just barely recognizable.

"Whoa, Paradox?" Ben exclaimed from the warp pad.

"Benjamin," came Paradox's voice over the crowded static, "I've gotten through, Gwendoline, Ben can hear me!"

"Gwen?" Ben was breathing heavily, and the warp pad began to get louder, "Gwen I'm here!"

With a sudden hush, the warp pad and voices became hushed...

"Bismuth?" Steven asked with a sense of concern and fear.

The warp pad suddenly roared to life, but the light from the warp was nothing like they'd seen before. It was... pink.

Ben jumped back out of the Galaxy warp and stood next to Bismuth and Steven, "They're here..." Ben said, audibly sounding as if he was crying. Within the beam from the warp was one person he recognized and the other he hoped wasn't who he thought.

Steven walked up to Ben and grabbed his hand, "Ben what's wrong, isn't that Paradox and..." Steven looked at the second person, "Oh." Steven gripped Ben's had harder when he realized who it was.

Standing next to the elderly time traveler was a woman in what appeared to be her early thirties. "Ben," she said with no emotion in her voice, "You've been gone for more than twenty years," she pulled off a jewel from the right sleeve of her jumpsuit, something resembling a charm of Bezel, and pulled a pocket watch off of her left sleeve, it appeared to be Paradox's based on its design. "It was only with the help of these mana recreations of the charms of Bezel as well as Paradox's Chrononaviagor that allowed me to locate you," Gwen let the objects go and the floated in the air around her body. They slowly orbited around her body with spiraling blue and magenta trails woven behind them, slowly returning to where she had removed them. Connecting back to her arms with the sound of a water drop.

The elderly time traveler finally spoke up, placing a hand on Gwen's shoulder. He spoke with a young man's voice but it came from an old man's face, "Sadly, even with these two items, you were displaced from time in such an unforeseen manor that I nearly couldn't find you." Paradox pulled out a pen-like device that was very obviously a piece of Galvan Tech, "This device was the thing that allowed us to finally find and attempt to contact you," he clicked the device's tip causing the Omnitrix to beep and flash, "This, in combination with Gwen's mana tracking and my temporal navigation, was our shot," With a single step, the time traveler's knees buckled as he tried to leave the warp pad.

"Wait," Gwen said holding him from falling, "As we get further from polylocational instantaneous teletransportation module we will begin to rapidly age until we are dust," she closed her eyes and breathed deeply, "_ Ostendo Specialis _," her voice, in that instance, held the only emotion Ben had heard in their time together. She spoke with a purpose in her voice and a single tear falling down her cheek. In the air, a small bubble appeared like a window, in it there was the scene of Ben sacrificing himself to save Earth from the Highbreed as Waybig. "Once you left, Ben, things got difficult," the image shifted, almost five months later, to a funeral. Grandpa Max, Gwen, Kevin, the plumber's kids, Cooper, and both Ben and Julie's parents were in attendance. It was clear why Julie's parents were there, but why Ben's? Until he read the tombstone that they were gathered around: Julie Yamamoto and Benjamin Tennyson, lover for life.

"They think I'm dead..." Ben said with hollow eyes and shivering jaw.

Paradox finally regained some strength and got to his feet with the help of Gwen and his cane, "Unfortunately, after months of Gwendoline's inability to find you with her natural abilities, both families agreed that your love should be immortalized in stone."

Ben's heart rate was on the rise. His breathing was exacerbated and his palms were clammy. Steven pulled him closer, trying to calm him down with both his empathetic powers and a calming hug. "Ben, I'm here for you," Steven said with a quiet and caring tone, his voice cracking.

"After the funeral, Azmuth arrived at my house asking if I'd had any luck at all in tracking your mana," Gwen said as her window of realization faded away, and she began explaining without magic, "After explaining there was no luck so far, he proposed that there may be a way to track you using the Omnitrix while it still had the Master Control enabled."

Ben, still in a state of shock from the prior sight of his own grave, slowly pulled up his left wrist. He watched as it was still glowing green, a sign of Master Control being enabled. He let his arm fall limp as he looked at Gwen, tears drenching his face, "So if Azmuth and you were able to build something to find me, why are you so much older..." His sobbing had made his speech barely understandable.

"Sadly, even Azmuth's device didn't work at first," Paradox piped up, "It took even more than Galvan technology and Anodite magic to locate you across the realms of time and space," he pulled the pocket watch off of Gwen's shoulder, "It was only once I added may Chrononaviagor to the mixture of the two that we were able to make contact with your Omnitrix." Paradox clicked the pen-like thing again causing the Omnitrix to beep, "Unfortunately it wasn't entirely accurate of a process."

"With only the two of us it was like searching for a needle in haystack, throughout time and space," Paradox placed the watch back on Gwen's shoulder, it connected with a resounding click and shock, "Honestly, thirteen years was lucky, but now that we found you, we can take you home."

All eyes were focused on Ben, whose face was hidden as it slummed to watch the ground, "To what..." he whispered in the silence, "Julie's dead, the world thinks I'm dead, and my family..." Ben slowly turned up to look Gwen in the eyes, "My family has changed." His voice cracked as nearly whimpered his words.

Steven didn't know what to do in this situation. He'd fought all three diamond tyrants, traveled through space and time, but this was something he wasn't prepared for. So, he took a breath and followed his heart, "Ben," he pulled gently on his arm, "I know you're hurting, but want you to know that you don't have to be alone..."

Ben slowly turned to look at Steven, "What do you mean?"

Steven gulped, he was sweating bullets, "I mean, if you don't feel like you have something to go back too... you can stay here with me... and the Gems..."

Ben closed his eyes, rubbing them furiously, "Really?"

Steven smiled at Ben, his beautiful green eyes were staring back into his soul. He'd felt this with only one other person, but he didn't want to spoil the moment. With a heartfelt hug, the two began to glow a beautiful combination of both rose pink and mint green. There before Bismuth, Gwen, and Paradox stood Benjeven.

Gwen and Paradox looked astonished at the fusion. This was something neither of them had seen, nor expected.

"Well, I'll be..." Bismuth approached the fusion, "So you two can fuse?" Her expression was hard to read, somewhere between confused and intrigued.

In a voice that harmonized the sound of both teens, Benjeven spoke, "Yeah, we found out last night when we fused on the beach..." They looked at their hands and down at their attire, Ben's green jacket overlaying Steven's typical red shirt with a star, "It's where we first met." They smiled at the thought and both the Omnitrix and Steven's gem began to glow just a bit.

A smile slowly grew over Bismuth's face, "Well isn't that just like your mom," she bent down and hugged them, "Fusion for love and not just for war."

Gwen and Paradox were still motionless, the sight prior to Bismuth's statement was one thing; however, her comment only pushed they astounded looks further.

Benjeven looked at Gwen and Paradox, blushing. What no one could hear was the conversation in their head.

_Oh no..., _said Ben.

_What's wrong, Ben, _Steven asked, confused and worried.

_Look at their faces, _Ben's voice had become quiet and almost embarrassed, _They must think I'm a horrible person or something _.

_Why would they think that? _Steven asked, trying to console Ben.

_They've spent over a decade trying to find me, and then they find me... like this _, Ben was starting to weep a bit.

_What's wrong with this? _

_They just got done talking about my love for Julie- and Bismuth said- and we just- and it's- _Ben was hyperventilating.

From the outside, all the two out of time and Bismuth could see was their form shivering and slowly but surely glowing. It quickly grew worse until the light that formed them appeared again and the two became unstable and fell apart as two separate people. Both Ben and Steven lay on the ground.

The only difference being Ben was sobbing on the floor, "I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..." Ben was hiding his face, scared of what was going to be said by Gwen or Paradox.

The two of them quickly snapped from their astounded reaction of the fusion. Gwen took one step forward quickly aging up five years, "Ben?" She called to him concerned, her voice blooming with seeds of emotion, "Why are you sorry?"

There was no response from Ben, beyond his weeping; however, Steven was stood and walked to Gwen, "He believes that you two think he's a horrible person for fusing with me," his tone was somber. He didn't believe that was what Gwen would think, but Ben knew her more so a tinge of doubt still resided in the back of his mind.

She looked down at the ground and at her aging body, "I can understand why," she walked off of the warp pad, quickly aging a year every few seconds, "But he should also know that no matter what, I want my cousin to be happy," she picked up Ben's head, wiping away his tears, "So are you happy here with Steven, you doofus?" She asked with a smile.

Ben looked up into his cousin's eyes, they were old but still held the youth of their friendship, "Yeah..." Ben said slowly getting to his feet, "I'm happy here, with Steven," Ben felt Steven's hand enclose around his own. The two cousins hugged, but Ben felt his cousin slowly falling into him. Her face had grown older and her strength had faded as she fell into her cousin's arms, limp and elderly.

"Quickly, get her back within the area of the warp pad!" Paradox yelled to Ben and Steven.

As the two struggled not to hurt Gwen. Bismuth quickly ran to the teens and picked Gwen up and placed her within the warp pad. A wispy white mist emanated off of her body as it became encased in a strange cocoon of ever-changing translucent blue and pink mana. The Chrononaviagor and Charm of Bezel levitated from her body and lay atop the cocoon as if waiting for something next to happen.

"What's happening," Bismuth asked as she looked over Gwen.

"Currently, Gwendoline is encased within a cocoon of both time and mana," Paradox gestured to the two items that lay atop the cocoon, making waves of energy pulsate across the surface. "She will be trapped there until someone of magical blood and familiar blood is able to use a spell to reverse the effects on her."

Bismuth walked over to the two boys and placed a hand on both of them, "Look, I know you both are new to this fusion of Benjeven, but I think with Steven's gem magic and your blood link to Gwen..." She trailed off, seeming unsure if even she was right. She ran her hand through her rainbow hair, scratching her head, "Paradox that makes sense right?'"

Paradox rubbed his chin while biting at his lip, "It depends on how strong Steven's natural magic is and if it's compatible with any known time-based spells from our own world."

Steven looked Ben in the eyes, his gorgeous green eyes, "Ben, do you think it's worth a shot?"

Ben cracked a small smile, "For my dweeb of a cousin, anything is."

Steven held out a hand to Ben, which Ben quickly accepted, and pulled him in for a hug. As the two grew closer their bodies were enveloped once again by a bright pink and mint green light, with only Steven's gem and the Omnitrix visible discernible. With a marvelous pink shimmer and green flash of light, there stood Benjeven. He was six feet tall with a minty green jacket that had a white stripe going down the left side, a black circle with the number ten was about at shoulder height. Under the open jacket was a rosy pink shirt with a yellow star on the front. They seemed to be wearing simple blue jeans that fit snugly and left nothing to the imagination and just below the ankles were a pair of pink and green converse, which were new.

Benjeven walked over to the warp pad and stood over Gwen, within his minty green eyes were speckles of pink as well as a determined sense of heroism, "So I just need to say some sort of spell?" His voice was melodic and slightly deeper than either boys' were alone.

"Just attempt to speak one of Gwen's common spells first, don't need you to tear apart the universe using a powerful spell you can't control," Paradox pulled out a small notebook that looked similar to Gwen's spellbook. He skimmed through the pages of the older purple book, "Let's see... ah! This spell should be a good test," he slipped the book back in his coat pocket, "The spell is called abeo exorior. It should make a large dome-like shield around you."

Benjeven stepped back away from the warp pad, "_ Abeo Exorior!" _He yelled. There were a few seconds were nothing noticeable happened, "I guess it didn't work-" With a sonic boom, a large pink dome appeared around him and caused the gem on his belly to glow. The shocked look on Benjeven's face was accompanied by a quick gasp and an echo, "I stand corrected."

Paradox was astounded at the barrier they'd made from the spell, "That was much more potent magic then I had expected!" He quickly flipped through the book again, thumbing like a coupon cutting mother with the Sunday paper, "Alright, this spell should do it," he mumbled to himself. He beckoned Benjeven to stop the shield and come closer to him, which they did with a resounding poof. As they got to the warp pad he handed them the book, "This spell should be more than enough to correct the time errors on Gwen and remove her from the cocoon"

Benjeven glanced at the book, the spell was long, nearly the entire page in the ancient language that it was written in, "Uh... how are we... I supposed to read this?"

Paradox ground his teeth, "Truth be told, I'm not sure..." he was at a disadvantage for once with knowledge, "Maybe your gray friend can help you?" He suggested, slumping over and sitting on the ground.

Benjeven took the journal to Bismuth, "Can you understand these markings?" Their voice held the hope of a small child that had been in trouble.

Bismuth took the journal and skimmed across the page. She seemed to scrunch her brow in irritation, "I think I know this language, or at least know of it." She closed the book around her finger, to keep the page bookmarked, "I do know someone who could read this though.

Bismuth quickly ran to warp pad that brought them here, "Come on you two," she yelled at Benjeven.

Benjeven looked back to Paradox and Gwen, "We'll be back as quick as we can!"

"Well hurry, you two! I'm not sure how long it's safe for her to stay like this..." he said, as his voice trailed off to pay attention to Gwen's condition.

With no time wasted the duo warped back to the temple and were greeted by three rather concerned gems.

"Uh... Stev-Ben?" Pearl asked confused.

"Benjeven," Garnet corrected her.

"Ah, right," she awkwardly hugged Benjeven before backing away to angrily glare towards Bismuth, "Where were you three?"

Bismuth didn't react two Pearl's anger, but answered calmly and sternly, "We were at the Galaxy Warp, now pay attention." Nearly everyone in the room changed there carefree expressions to that of concern or alert, "I one of you to translate this text on this page to a language these two can understand." She opened the book and showed the page full of strange runic text.

Pearl squinted at the writing, "This is some strange magic text from long before our arrival on earth..."

Garnet removed her glasses and took a glance before snatching the book away, "No..." she said in disbelief. She looked at Bismuth and Benjeven, "Alright let's go." She didn't hesitate or invite anyone else, but she entered the warp pad and they were gone.

As they arrived, Benjeven and Bismuth looked at Garnet who was still clutching the book. "Uh, Garnet, are you okay?" Benjeven asked.

She didn't look at Benjeven but started talking to them, "This type of magic is very dangerous enough being performed by a gifted magician or Anodite," she handed the book back to him without once making eye contact, "And I think you're time walking friend there hasn't told you the consequences of using this spell."

Paradox, now standing, looked at the floor, avoiding their gazes, "I told you all you needed to know, that it would save your cousin."

Garnet walked towards him slowly but with no trace of any positivity, "You better tell them what this spell does, in its entirety, or so help me I will see exactly which future I need to make happen to see you will be held personally reasonable."

Paradox sighed and beckoned them all forward, "This spell will reverse time upon Gwen but will also suck the reader and the one the spell is cast upon back to when you wish..." he paused and gulped, "Which would pull Ben, Steven, Gwen, and I back to the world we came from," he said referring to Gwen and himself.

"And?" Garnet asked, clearly knowing the answer.

"And... there is no real hope in returning to this place..." Paradox grumbled.

Benjeven took in the information and nearly fell over before getting caught by Bismuth, "So you're saying that we'll be trapped back in Ben's homeworld," he seemed to sound more similar to Steven, rather than his usual voice, "But if we don't, Gwen dies..." he now sounded more similar to Ben. Their fusion began to wither and fall apart as Benjeven grew anxious, "What should we do..." he said as he split into Ben and Steven.

Bismuth walked over to the two, "I know this is a lot to take in, but I also know we can find a solution," Bismuth helped the two to their feet.

"Then what's your brilliant solution, Bismuth," Paradox asked, mildly agitated with a furrowed brow, "Have Ben clone himself?" He pretended to ponder the idea by looking up and stroking his chin, before sternly glaring at her, "The clones would be imperfect." He quickly snapped his fingers as if having a thought, "Have him become an Anodite in order to perform magic himself?" He rolled his eyes and scowled at her, "No, because Anodite's can't be registered in the Omnitrix." He rubbed the bridge of his nose and shook his head, "So I ask you once more, what's your great solution?"

Bismuth, reeling back and embarrassed, blinked and glanced at the ground, "Well-" she didn't know what to say until a faint glint of green caught her eye, "The Omnitrix..." she muttered.

"What?" Paradox asked, placing a hand around his ear.

Bismuth pulled out her blueprints of the Omnitrix and skimmed over them again, her eyes narrowed and focused on finding something. Without warning, she grabbed Ben's wrist and began pulling up the Omnitrix's playlist of aliens.

"Uh... Bismuth?" Ben seemed concerned and very confused as he tried to pull his hand back, with futile success.

She didn't respond but kept dialing thought aliens and mumbling to herself, "It could work... the myths could be true..."

"Bismuth, what are you looking for?" Garnet asked, now standing next to her.

She stopped messing with the Omnitrix and released Ben's hand. Her face only showed defeat as she shook her head and clenched her fists, "I'm looking for the Guardian of Petropia." She sank to a squat before finally falling to a sitting position, which Garnet followed, "Back when I was made on Homeworld there was another race of aliens called the Petrosapien," she motioned for Ben to find the alien she was talking about, which Ben easily did and allowed the hologram to be on display, "They were enslaved by the Diamonds and forced to make weapons and building as us Bismuths were, but they never seemed upset or in despair, which always threw me for a loop. After all, these folks were slaves." She motioned for Ben to put the hologram away, "One day I asked them why they never seemed upset or depressed and they told me the story of their great protector of Petropia," she got herself back to her feet and began to tell the tale, "The being was told to be hundreds of feet tall, have the ability to fly, and were made of a jewel so pure it could absorb a Diamonds Magic," she leaned close to Ben and began to talk quietly and almost sounded giddy, "Some of the stories went as far as to say that they could use that same magic against the Diamonds after it was absorbed." She pointed to the Omnitrix, "While I don't know if such a being exists, I'm sure that if it did Azmuth would have found a way to put it into his magnum opus."

Ben activated and searched through the Omnitrix, dialing though alien after alien. He only recognized around thirty or so, but none seemed to match her description, "Bismuth I don't think I have any aliens like that"

Bismuth sighed and shook her head, glaring to the ground in despair.

Without warning, Garnet whipped her head and stared at Paradox, "Tell me what a Crystalsapien is." Even though she had sunglasses on, her icy stare and steaming anger filled the area they were in.

Paradox raised an eyebrow, "Come again, madam?"

Garnet marched over to him and stood nearly inches away from him, "I said, tell me what a Crystalsapien is!"

Paradox avoided her gaze the best he could, but everything was telling him to look at her. Once he did, he saw the three eyes of Garnet all fraught with anger, "Please, madam, I ask that you refrain from doing that." Paradox said, retaining his nonchalant demeanor.

"You disgust me," Garnet said placing her glasses back on. She turned around and walked to Bismuth and Ben, "Ben, your Omnitrix can find an alien based purely on the name you give it and it's species name, correct?"

Ben nodded.

"Ask it to turn you into a Crystalsapien." Garnet turned to Paradox with anger so untempered that her gauntlets had manifested.

Ben gulped and took a deep breath, "Alright, Omnitrix, Crystalsapien!"

In a burst of green light, Ben felt his body become rigid as his chest became more square and rock-like. His face became squished inwards and his eyes became one, buried within his skull. He hunched forward as six purple crystals protruded from his back and one from the top of his head. He rolled his shoulders back, puffing his chest out, allowing two more crystals to protrude just below his collar. With a big stretch, Ben cried out, "Chromastone!" Ben looked at the alien form he'd taken, "Whoa, Chromastone is a Crystalsapien?"

Bismuth walked around Ben, admiring the transformation, "Garnet, is this the alien from the legend, The Guardian of Petropia?"

Garnet sneered, refusing to lose eye contact with Paradox, "Yes, he told me it is."

Ben, Bismuth, and Steven looked at Garnet with confusion, "But he didn't say anything," said Steven.

"You don't understand, Steven," Garnet gritted her teeth before huffing a deep breath, "Usually when I meet those who have similar abilities to my own, I'm able to sense what they're thinking and vise versa." Garnet dispersed her gauntlets and angrily pointed at Paradox, "But that man doesn't have future sight, he has multiverse traveling capabilities and time traveling abilities," she threw her glasses to the ground, shattering them as they dissipated in a blink, "He doesn't even realize that, he's been letting me see everything I need to know."

Closing her ruby and sapphire eyes, her third violet eye opened wide, "Sometimes I hear him tell me what I need but in a timeline parallel to our own, sometimes he makes actions that I have to be ready to counter, and sometimes, rarely, he'll do something unforgivable."

Paradox's brow was furrowed as he breathed heavily through the nose, "Madam, I'm only going to ask you once," he faked a smile, "Please refrain you from sharing your..." he put a finger to his mouth, "What do you call thoughts for impure gems like yourself?" He glared right back into her fiery eyes, unflinching to her burning anger.

"Look let's all take a breath," said Chromastone, placing a hand on Garnet's shoulder and putting a hand out towards Paradox. He slowly approached Paradox, confused and on guard with his hands ready to absorb anything, "This isn't like you Paradox. Why are you acting this way?"

Paradox began breathing deeply but not in anger, but in fear, "Tennyson, at any given time I am able to travel to any place and time, but now I'm trapped here. Powerless. Useless. I'm practically some normal human!"

Ben let his guard down and embarrassed Paradox for a hug, "Look, Paradox, I understand how you feel, truly," Ben backed away from the hug with his hands on either shoulder of Paradox, "But let us help send you home."

Paradox, with a tear in his eye, nodded and gave Ben a handshake, "Alright, do what you're going to do. I'll stop the barrage of insults and snide remarks."

Ben turned around and looked to Steven, "Alright Steven, you ready?"

Steven nodded and looked to the page with the spell on it, "So how do I read it?"

Ben and Bismuth seemed a bit phased and without answers, Garnet didn't seem like she had anything to offer either. "I could read it, but this type of magic is too powerful for my gems to survive without cracking," Garnet said with an apologetic tone, "Even if I helped Steven translate this spell, he'd need to say it perfectly in one go or else it could have drastic side effects."

"Sunstone..." Paradox muttered quietly.

Garnet turned her head, "Say that again."

Paradox cleared his throat, "I don't know what it means, but the word Sunstone came to mind."

Steven and Garnet gasped and spoke in unison, "Sunstone!"

Ben scratched his stony head, "Uh, care to fill me in?"

"Just watch," Steven and Garnet held hands and hummed a song in harmony. There was a swirling of light as their gems began to float into the air as a new large being formed. They were at least nine feet tall and had sun orange skin.

"This, kids, is Sunstone," the fusion said, looking to you. Yes, you. The reader. "Now with this little book, and Chromastone's powers, we're going to send these two back to where they came!"

Chromast- I mean, Ben looked to Sunstone, "Okay, you two ready?"

They gave four thumbs up, "Alright kiddies, if you are susceptible to flashing lights, or scare easily due to supernatural or otherwise magical acts, I'm going to ask you to avert your eyes," with the book held in their upper right hand they spoke aloud, "_ Quis quandum era maflictus, iem feachus mas redentegero, quis venit pro mas mesquam essei _!" As they spoke those words, their gems began to glow and radiate their natural, unfused colors: Rosy pink, ruby red, and sapphire blue. Soon the pink glowed brighter than either and the other two began to somehow whistle under the pressure. In a moment of absolute silence, there was the sound they all feared, a crack. On both the red and blue gems there grew two hairline cracks, but not in vain.

In the air above them appeared an electric blue line that had spouted another line and from that line grew one to connect both of them, creating a triangle. Within it a deep sea of dark blue 'void stuff' more triangles were visible.

"Alright, time to work," Ben reached out his jeweled hands and grabbed the triangle, "OH, BOY!" Ben cried out in surprise, "A bit more than I was expecting." While absorbing the spell inside himself, there was a constant rainbow shimmering from the triangle to his hands. After nearly a full minute, there was still no change. "Um... guys, I'm reaching the maximum amount of energy I can absorb!" Ben's breathing became labored and soon found himself panicking. He could easily tell that Chromastone's species couldn't take much more until he, himself, would break.

Where Sunstone once stood was now Garnet being healed by Steven's tears, "Steven I'll be fine for the moment," Garnet pointed to Ben who was hovering and going closer to the portal, "Help your friend before he dies."

Steven turned and jumped grabbing his legs, using all his strength to pull him down, "Come on Ben just let go!"

"I'm trying, but my hands are stuck!" Ben yelled down.

"Warning, Crystalsapien energy absorption reaching peak levels," said the Omnitrix on his chest.

"Oh and now there's that," Ben said rolling his eye.

"Ben, I have an idea," Steven yelled, climbing up Ben's body.

"I'm open to any and all ideas, so shoot!"

"First I need to know, your body is made of rocks and stuff right?" Steven was now practically on Ben's shoulders.

"If I were to wager, I'd say so," he responded, "Why, what are you going to do?"

Steven quickly manifested his shield, "I'm sorry in advance." Steven slammed his shield down on both Ben's wrists, cleaving his hands off as they got send through the triangle. It closing as that happened.

As they fell to the ground, Ben howling in pain, Steven created a magical bubble around them breaking their fall.

As the bubble faded Ben jumped to his feet, "Okay next time your plan involves severing my hands from my wrist, inform me first!" He shouted, more out of pain than anger.

Steven rubbed his head, shrugging his shoulders, "Sorry, Ben, I couldn't pull you down and you couldn't let go so I just did what I could."

Ben wasn't really listening as he glanced at his shattered stumps that he called wrists, "Well can you fix this?" Ben asked, a bit hopeful, "You fixed your friend Garnet's gems."

Steven looked at Ben's hands, shrugging, "I can try, but I don't know how it will work for you." With that Steven kissed both of Ben's wrists. A pink glow emanated from both and a pink aura grew where the hands once were. Sure enough, two hands, similar to Chromastone's old ones, appeared. "I think it worked," Steven remarked, grabbing his hands and checking them over.

Ben flexed his new fingers, "I think you're right!" Ben cracked his knuckles and pointed both his hands at Gwen and Paradox, "Alright now let's try this out." With a bellowing yell, Ben cried out and a large and luminous rainbow beam fired from both of his hands. It was more than twice the size of a semi-truck and trice as wide. The only thing that stopped Ben from being propelled backward was Bismuth and Steven bushing back to support him.

The beam moved surprisingly slow for a beam of light-based energy, but everyone present would be thankful for that. Without warning, Garnet sprung up and got behind Ben, "Ben I'm sorry, but I need to do this." She quickly clasped her hand around the Omnitrix on his chest and dialed it at random, making it beep and make random noises. She felt her hand being stricken by radiant energy that she'd never felt before, but she kept fiddling until, in annoyance with the beeping, she slammed her fist against the faceplate and heard a beep followed by a blinding green light.

The rainbow beam had vanished and Ben was human and underneath Bismuth, Steven, and Garnet.

"What the heck, Garnet?" Ben shouted, in anger, "That beam was gonna send them back home!"

Garnet slowly got to her feet and rubbed her head, "Not quite, Ben," She pointed to Paradox, "You, Paradox, explain it to him."

Paradox raised a finger to protest but was cut short as Garnet quickly, and promptly, poofed into just her two gems. "Well that's... different," Paradox sat down on the warp pad and asked them all to come closer, as he didn't want to repeat himself on such a complicated explanation.

"So why did Garnet poof and how did she know Chromastone's powers weren't going to work?" Steven asked while sitting down.

"While I'm no expert in Crystalsapien biology, as there is very few in existence, a woman of a parallel earth I met seemed to have similar abilities," Paradox pulled out a picture of a woman in a blue and red suit that was embossed with a star in its center, "While she is only a half breed of both human and this alien DNA, her powers were similar enough that I believe Chromastone and her would function on the same level."

Ben and Steven shared a confused glance.

Bismuth, holding Sapphire and Ruby, raised her finger, "So you're saying that you've met an alien similar to the Petropian Guardian with the exception of being half human?"

"Precisely," Paradox exclaimed while snapping his fingers, "That woman was a marvel to those she protected, but even when she could absorb certain magic of that world it was converted straight to energy rather than being redirected."

"So you're telling me that this plan wouldn't work?" Ben said, a bit disheartened.

"On the contrary, Benjamin, I had no real idea if Chromastone could do what you were attempting." He pointed to the Omnitrix, "You've shown more than once you can push your alien heroes to do more than they are typically capable of, so I wasn't sure what to expect," he focused his attention to the stones in Bismuth's hands, "As for her, she probably wasn't aware of the consequences of your actions until after you'd already carried out the most dangerous part of your plan, hence why she sprung into action so quick."

"Then why'd she poof?" Bismuth asked the sass in her voice was at full power as she raised her eyebrow to exaggerate her point.

"Simple," Paradox waved a hand dismissively, in a manner that seemed to convey a sense of superiority and higher intellect, "Her gems couldn't handle the damage she was taking from Chromastone's energy beam so soon after her gem cracking."

With those answer satisfying everyone's curiosities, the attention shifted right back to Gwen, lying helpless upon the warp pad in a cocoon of time infused mana. Nobody said a word, the only audible sound was the warp pad idling.

"Ben," Steven asked, laying his head upon Ben's shoulder, "What about the other aliens in your Omnitrix," Steven fiddled with the dial on the Omnitrix, slowly rotating through alien after alien, "Don't you have any heroes that can deal with problems like this?"

Ben smiled at Steven, his beautiful eyes sparkling with hope, "Steven I wish I did, but the only alien I think could help is... well unusable."

Steven stopped dialing and laid his head on Ben's lap. He knew the situation with Gwen was one of high priority and stress, but he felt relaxed and safe where he was. He wanted Ben to feel this way too, and he had a small inkling of how to do so, "Ben, remember when we fell asleep fused and we saw into each other's memories?"

Ben, who'd been holding Steven and playing with his hair, shivered and pulled Steven close in a moment of fear. "Yeah," he replied, his voice quivering, "Why?"

Steven grabbed and held tight to Ben's hand, "When I was in there, I got to see an alien you were ready to use too-"

He was quickly cut off by Ben holding him tighter and partially covering his mouth by mistake, "You mean Alien X..." Ben trailed off.

Steven wiggled his head to freedom and turned to look at Ben, "I think so, the one who can do anything."

Ben didn't say anything but looked down at the Omnitrix that was idling with a hologram of Swampfire. "Steven, Alien X can do anything, that's true," he clicked two buttons and canceled his transformation, "But there's a catch, while I'm transformed I have to convince the two other personalities of Alien X to want to do the same."

Steven looked at Gwen, "Well that sounds like it could be hard, but it's only two people. Is it that hard?" Steven asked, shrugging with hope.

"It wouldn't be, except for the fact that one is the voice of peace and love and the other is the voice of war and rage," Ben rolled his eyes while glaring at the Omnitrix, "And to them, I'm supposed to Ben the voice of reason."

Steven sunk down into Ben's lap again, "Okay, that does make things more difficult."

"Indeed," Paradox piped up, "Alien X having to agree on everything with such conflicting personalities is rather bothersome, especially since there are only three people there."

Bismuth, who had set Ruby and Sapphire's gems next to here, turned her attention to the conversation, "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Well Celestialsapiens, such as Alien X, put everything to a vote where the majority of people are what swing the decision," Paradox explained.

"And if Ben had a fourth person in there that agreed with him, it could make things much easier to rule in his favor one way or another, huh?" Bismuth confirmed.

"Precisely!" Paradox exclaimed, "Now how do we get another person in there?"

Steven grabbed Ben's hand, "Leave that to me!" He turned to Ben, "You only need one vote to really swing the decision so let's fuse!"

Ben's eyes widened, "Paradox, could that work?"

"He's not going to be able to answer that, but I can," came a familiar voice. Garnet squatted behind them, laying a hand on either boys' shoulder, "I can't promise that you two can sway Bellicus and Serena, but I know that you two have the best chances."

Ben looked at Steven and smiled, grabbing his hand, "I'm all in," he exclaimed, hoisting their hands and the Omnitrix into the air.

As their hands were thrust into the air, their bodies with enveloped in the light of the Omnitrix's transformation sequence and Steven's gem glow. As the beautiful blinding lights faded away, what remained was a being of wonder. An alien that stood over seven feet tall and had the toned body of a professional swimmer. He was the color of a blinding dwarf star and was speckled with shimmering rosy stars within him and centered in his chest was the Omnitrix with Steven's Gem beneath it. His head was that of a normal human, but with no discernable mouth or nose and had a head with three protruding horns from his forehead. He also had hair, unlike the normal Alien X, that flowed down the back of his head, down to the center of his back, it bared resemblance to Steven's father.

"It's up to them now," said Garnet.

"Good luck, Benjeven," Paradox said, moving back towards the center of his warp pad and sitting down.

As the two felt the transformation finalize, they felt each other's joy and pain, love and hate, and the power of the omniverse at their fingertips, as their body floated in the beauty that was deep space. With them in this space were faces of compassion and war, Serena and Bellicus.

"Bellicus, it appears we have new company," said the sweet and soft voice of Serena.

"Yes, I see and he looks like he's the offspring of the human, Ben Tennyson," came the gruff and grumpy tone of Bellicus.

"Don't be rude, Bellicus," Serena scolded, somehow, politely, "He could be rather different than Benjamin."

"Really, Serena," Bellicus said, raising an eyebrow sarcastically, "It's just another human wearing the Omnitrix," he said sharply, "It can't be much better."

Benjeven's body, which had simply been floating with its eyes closed, began to grow to the size of Serena and Bellicus.

"I stand corrected..." Bellicus mumbled.

"That you do," retorted Serena with a smirk.

Once Benjeven's body reached the size of both faces, two translucent figures appeared at the base of it. They were Steven and Ben, both wearing the same outfit as Benjeven.

"Woah..." Steven said slowly stumbling backward.

"Yeah, I know," Ben said confidently, helping Steven to his feet, "Being part of Alien X can be overwhelming, especially if you're not used to turning into normal aliens."

Serena and Bellicus both stared in disbelief and confusion at the two teens.

"Ben Tennyson," erupted Bellicus, "Who is this other human being?"

"His name is-" Ben was cut off.

"Bellicus!" Serena scolded, "What in the forge of creation are you yell for?"

"Tennyson has brought another human mind into our celestial body!" Bellicus fumed.

"Well, technically-" Steven was cut off just as quick.

"While it is unprecedented, Bellicus, that is no reason to become enraged that you can be heard lightyears away!" Serena said trying to retain her peaceful composure.

"Unprecedented?" Bellicus, fumed, "Unprecedented?!"

"Bellicus, Serena, please just hear us-" Ben continued to get cut off by the voice of rage.

"Listen, Benjamin, I don't care what you have to say," Bellicus turned his nose up and faced away, "I refuse to cooperate with you or any other human to dawn this Omnitrix or any other device that calls upon our DNA sample!"

"Bellicus please, now you're just being unreasonable," Serena retorted in annoyance.

"Look both of you," Ben raised his voice, attempting to speak over either face of Alien X, "I need you to listen!"

Bellicus remained silent while Serena glared at Ben, offended, "Now listen here, Benjamin, I know you have used your Omnitrix to save the world countless times, but we are not slaves to your watch or-" she was quickly cut off.

With a stomp an empty space and loud huff, Steven had had enough. With a voice trembling with anger he shouted at the voices of war and compassion, "Quiet, both of you!" A pink aura flowed from Steven's gem, pulsing across the fabric of space and time within Alien X's head. The two faces turned their attention to Steven with no words, only astonished faces. "Now that I have your attention, listen!"

Ben nodded to Steven with a slight smile, but turned his attention to either face, "Look I wouldn't be here if I didn't need too, and I definitely wouldn't bring another _half_ human with me while transformed unless I thought I'd need to." Neither Serena or Bellicus tried to cut him off, so he took this opportunity to finally make a motion. "So, I motion to restore Gwendolyn Tennyson to her natural state before running off the warp pad."

Serena and Bellicus remained astonished and in their stupor from Steven's empathic abilities.

Ben and Steven shared a passing glance of confusion until Steven facepalmed himself in realization, "I didn't mean remain quiet forever," Steven mumbled, rolling his eyes in annoyance, "You may speak again!" Steven shouted out, launching a pulse of the same rosy pink aura.

Both face release a small gasp. "Half human?" Bellicus muttered.

"Then what is your other half, Steven Quartz Universe?" Serena asked seemingly intrigued, with a raised eyebrow.

Steven looked around, hesitantly, "I'm half gem," Steven lifted his shirt revealing his rosy pink gem, "A Pink Diamond to be specific."

Both war and compassion smile.

"A gem of empathic understanding," said Serena.

"One in a line of tyrannical rulers," said Bellicus.

Ben grabbed and held Steven's hand, "Can we please get back on track," Ben asked the two.

"Well if the Diamond child will second the motion, then so shall I," Bellicus roared with approval.

"Agreed," Serena agreed, her voice soothing once again.

Ben smiled and squeezed Steven's hand before turning to face him, "Well what do you say, Steven, do you second the motion?"

"I do!" Steven exclaimed.

"Then it's settled," Ben proclaimed in triumph.

"Agreed," Serena and Bellicus spoke in unison, "Motion seconded!" A wispy window appeared, allowing them to see outside of Alien X from a third person perspective. Through this window, they could see as Alien X apparated next to Gwen's body and placed its hand through the magic cocoon and upon her head. "Reverting accelerated aging process," announced the harmonious voices of Benjeven, Serena, Bellicus in unison. With a bright and rosy pink glow from their hand, Alien X let its powers flow over Gwen and they all watched as she aged backward to the age she was when she arrived. As they removed their hand and floated back several feet, the cocoon around Gwen dispersed and the Charm of Bezel and Chrononaviagor returned to Gwen's shoulders.

With their motion carried out, the window they used to watch the outside events transpire quickly faded into nothing.

Steven looked at everyone, "So... how do we... un-transform?"

Ben hid his face behind his hand, blushing in embarrassment, "Honestly... I'm not really sure," he looked to Bellicus and Serena out of the corner of his eye before looking at Steven, "Last time I used Alien X, I kinda had to insult them in order to use the Omnitrix at all..."

"Well, how about I just ask them?" Steven asked, with a small giggle, placing his hand in Ben's.

Ben blushed, even more, becoming as red as a Tetramand or a Ruby, "Yeah that's a good idea," Ben pulled Steven in for a hug before letting him go.

Steven addressed the two voices directly, "While we appreciate all your help, I'd like to know how to transform back to our prior selves."

"You need to put it to a vote, Steven," Serena said politely.

"Alright," Steven cleared his throat, "I motion to allow us to transform back into our non-Alien X form."

"I second the motion," Bellicus interjected.

Everyone froze, a bit in shock, but Serena eventually spoke up, "Then, motion carried."

With a bright green flash, Benjevin was standing next to Paradox, Bismuth, and Garnet who were helping Gwen to her feet.

"I see you finally figured out how that alien works," Gwen piped up, still a bit groggy and supported by Paradox, "Loving the new color scheme."

Benjeven blushed and smiled, playing with his own messy hair, "Thanks."

"You know Gwendoline, we really should be off soon," Paradox pointed out, removing the Chrononaviagor from her shoulder to check the time, "So I think we should say our goodbyes."

Benjeven inhaled suddenly, gulping as he held himself in an embarrassing hug. He didn't know what he wanted. Staying here, he'd be happy and leave others miserable. Heading home he'd make others happy and leave himself miserable. A single tear fell from his eye and hit the ground.

Gwen smiled softly, and watched Ben, or Benjeven, struggling with something mentally. She softly approached him and laid a hand on his shoulder, "Don't worry, Doofus, you're staying here."

Benjeven looked up in shock, "Wha-Why-Are you-" He wasn't sure what to say.

She pulled Benjeven in for a tight hug, "You're happy again, Ben, I'm not taking that away from you." She stopped hugging him and quickly gave a stern look, "But so help me, Steven, if you hurt my cousin, I will break any and all rules of time and space to make you pay."

Benjeven blinked blankly.

"I'm just joking, Steven," Gwen said with a chuckle.

Benjeven sighed a breath of relief and laughed with her.

Paradox cleared his throat, "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there is a consequence to you staying here, Ben." Paradox looked at Gwen with a frown.

Benjeven looked over the elder time traveler, "What's that?"

Gwen's soft smile faded into a frown, "The Omnitrix..."

"What?" Bismuth piped up, interjecting herself.

"The Omnitrix," Paradox replied, "We used it as a homing beacon to find you in this world and had planned to use it as a roadmap across the omniverse in order to guide us home. Without it, we're just as well trapped here on this spot for eternity."

Benjeven quietly and quickly unfused, leaving the two boys standing next to each other.

"Ben, I know how you feel about the Omnitrix," Steven took Ben's hand and held it tightly in his own, "About how you think it makes you the hero you've been throughout your life," Steven pulled Ben close, their faces inches apart, "But you know what Ben?"

Ben looked deep into Steven's eyes, his beautiful eyes, "What?" he asked, his throat dry.

"The Omnitrix is just a gadget, you're the real hero behind it," Steven whispered into Ben's ear, "And that's the person I love."

Steven pulled Ben closer to him, their lips causing sparks of pleasure as they embraced each other for a passionate kiss. Their eyes closed and holding tight to each other in their embrace, the kiss only broke after Paradox cleared his throat.

"Ben?" Paradox called out.

Ben pulled away from the kiss, slowly and smiling, "Omnitrix, command code: Zero, Zero, Zero, release coupling, Zero."

The Omnitrix beeped and the band on the bottom broke evenly across the center before retracting into the central part of the device. It then recoiled around and into Ben's hand, "Here you are, Paradox." Ben said, holding out the Omnitrix.

Gwen walked to retrieve the device, with it quickly attaching to her.

"I suppose you guys are leaving?" Ben asked standing in front of Gwen.

The Omnitrix beeped and the matrix popped up, "New human user, Gwendolyn Tennyson, registered." Just as quickly, the matrix retracted back into the main holster.

Gwen hugged Ben, "Yeah, Doofus, now take care of yourself."

Ben smiled, "You too, Dweeb."

Gwen walked back to Paradox, "Alright, Paradox, let's go home."

"Well traveling throughout time and space via magic isn't my preferred method of interdimensional travel," Paradox sighed, "But I'll suffer for you Gwendoline." Paradox joked.

Gwen rolled her eyes. "Now let's get started," she closed her and spoke with words that echoed throughout space, "_ Abeo Eo Recedentia Estotei Quasai _," she opened her eyes which were coated in a revolving blue and pink aura, " _Integumentum Imatari Proximum Exorior _," around her and Paradox a small field of mana began to form and spiral around them, " _Meven Exciase Aweg Quis quandum era maflictus _," a hole appeared in the air above them, triangular in shape, " _iem feachus mesquam essei mas redentegero _," with a final pull, the two were levitated upwards almost reaching the horizon of the portal, " _quis venit pro mas _!" With those final words, the duo disappeared into the portal and the galaxy warp grew silent.

"I guess this makes you a crystal gem of sorts, Ben," Garnet smiled.

"Yeah, I guess so," Ben agreed, smiling brightly at Steven, "Now I guess I should meet my new roommates, what do you think?"

Steven laughed, as did Garnet, "Yeah, Peal and Amethyst are gonna want to get to know you if you're going to be a crystal gem." Steven started walking towards the warp pad that would send them home, followed by Garnet and Ben, "Bismuth, you coming?"

Bismuth was bent down picking something up, "I'll be right there," she quickly grabbed her things that were on the ground before rushing to the warp pad, "You know, Ben, I'm very impressed with you," she said rustling Ben and Steven's hair, "Giving up your Omnitrix to stay here and be happy with Steven."

"Thanks," Ben said sheepishly.

Bismuth handed Ben the blueprints for the Omnitrix from earlier that day, "But what if I told you, after seeing it function, I could make you another Omnitrix?"

Ben and Steven looked at Bismuth with shocked smiles, while Garnet turned her attention off into the distance, "I knew this story would be interesting," she said as the warp pad sent them home, "I wonder what's gonna happen next?"


End file.
